EC Mahbub: Ready to step down

Election Commissioner Mahbub Talukdar on Monday said that he was ready to resign if it would benefit the country.

The election commissioner also said that he has no comments to make if the Supreme Judicial Council is constituted to investigate the corruption allegations against the current Election Commission (EC).

The election commissioner was talking to reporters on the 4th anniversary of the present Election Commission at his office in Agargaon on Monday afternoon.

"If my resignation brings any benefit to the country, I'm ready to resign from my position," he said.

Also Read - EC Mahbub Talukdar: Municipal polls cannot be called participatory

The remarks come from the election commissioner at a time when the Election Commission has come under fire over allegations of financial corruption, and irregularities and also low voter turnout in different elections, including by-polls.

Earlier, 42 eminent citizens of the country urged the president to constitute the Supreme Judicial Council to investigate the allegations of corruption and misconduct by the commission.

They wrote two letters to the president in this regard on December 14, 2020 and on January 17.

In their first letter, they said that the Nurul Huda-led Election Commission indulged in misconduct and irregularities, including expenditure on "special speakers" for delivering speeches in training programs ahead of the 11th general elections and the fifth upazila polls.

Also Read - EC Mahbub Talukdar: CCC polls model of irregular election

A group of lawyers and the Left Democratic Alliance (LDA) also urged the election commissioners to resign from their positions.

On January 16, referring to the oddities in the second phase of municipal elections, Mahbub Talukdar had said the polls could not be called "participatory."

In a written statement, the election commissioner had said he had visited 18 booths of three polling stations of Savar municipality on Saturday and saw that around 1,232 out of 7,311 voters had cast their votes till 1pm, according to media reports.

Then on January 28, the election commissioner called the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) elections a model of irregular elections.

Talking about the low voter turnout in the CCC polls held on Wednesday, Mahbub Talukdar said: “The turnout was only 22.5%. Such a small number of votes cannot be a regulator in the establishment of democracy.”

Incidents of violence, commandeering of voting centres and vandalizing of police vehicles, and EVMs had tarnished the elections, he added.